~e; phone home spaceprobe

[bc <human@electronetwork.org>]

  [thought i read a few days ago how one earlier spacecraft was
  given its last instructions to steer and then plummet to its own
  death inside the rings of saturn. this must be another craft, as
  its 2 million year future sounds much longer. then, there are
  those Voyager I & II predecessors, one of which is known to
  have exited the universe, without power to communicate with
  earth base-stations anymore, while if floats silently farther
  into that space of voided place we know so little about, still.]


Sunday, 3 March, 2002, 15:46 GMT
Pioneer 10 phones home
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1851000/1851686.stm

American scientists have sent a message through 12 billion kilometres 
of space - to the Pioneer10 spacecraft, which was launched 30 years 
ago.

Scientists at the American space agency, NASA, beamed a message to 
Pioneer 10 on Friday from a radio telescope near Los Angeles.

The response came back more than 22 hours later to a base in Spain.

Pioneer 10 is now on course for Aldebaran, the red star in the 
constellation Taurus ... but it will not get there for about two 
million years.

 From the newsroom of the BBC World Service
[fair-use of copyright 2oo2, ~e.org, .edu]

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